Anybody want to melt some pennies?

[Pat McCotter]

Does anybody know if the value of quarters and dimes have similar fates to those of nickels and pennies, or are quarters and dimes made of cheaper materials on the whole?

From http://www.coinflation.com/
Table based on December 22, 2006 closing base metal prices (expressed in pounds):

Copper $2.8555/lb 
Zinc $1.9066/lb 
Nickel $15.7094/lb 

Description	Denomination	Metal Value	Metal % of Denomination
1909-1982 Cent (95% copper)	$0.01	$0.0192525	192.52%
1946-2007 Nickel	$0.05	$0.0668980	133.79%
1982-2007 Cent (97.5% zinc)	$0.01	$0.0106387	106.38%
1965-2007 Dime	$0.10	$0.0196297	19.62%
1965-2007 Quarter	$0.25	$0.0490770	19.63%
1971-2007 Half Dollar	$0.50	$0.0981546	19.63%
1971-1978 Eisenhower	$1.00	$0.1963105	19.63%
1979-1981, 1999 SBA	$1.00	$0.0701099	7.01%
2000-2007 Sacagawea	$1.00	$0.0532373	5.32%

[Ron Helwig]

I've been thinking that we need copper rounds, just like we have silver and gold rounds.

Make them an ounce (or an appropriate metric weight).

I wonder how hard it would be to set up a copper minting station? 

BTW, I have a bunch of 95% copper pennies (maybe a half pound) - in case anyone wants to try. 

How about the same with Nickel?

[David]

   The penny...the only common US currency backed by
intrinsic value.

Yup.   

[TackleTheWorld]

I've been thinking that we need copper rounds, just like we have silver and gold rounds.
How about the same with Nickel?

I heard and objection once that you shouldn't use more than one kind of metal in hard currency because as values of the different minerals vary in relation to each other, people will hoard the one with higher value.
Can anyone explain that viewpoint?

I don't see a big problem with coins of various metals.  Foreign currencies fluctuate in relation to each other, that doesn't stop people from trading with other countries.

[lordmetroid]

I don't see any porblem with different metals neither. I suppose they do fluctuate. But so does our fiat currencies and I don't see prices go up and down from day to day just because of these fluctuations.

[Dave Ridley]

there probably should not be a national or government currency....people or companies should just make their own and whatever works works.

[Pat McCotter]

there probably should not be a national or government currency....people or companies should just make their own and whatever works works.

That sounds like anarchy! We can't have that!

[KBCraig]

I heard and objection once that you shouldn't use more than one kind of metal in hard currency because as values of the different minerals vary in relation to each other, people will hoard the one with higher value.
Can anyone explain that viewpoint?

I don't see a big problem with coins of various metals.  Foreign currencies fluctuate in relation to each other, that doesn't stop people from trading with other countries.

The problem comes when they're defined as currency, with a denomination one metal being a subset of another. If coins were denoted only by metal and weight, there's no problem at all: if copper goes up relative to gold, it wouldn't affect a non-existing penny:dollar ratio.

Just like your foreign currencies: people will pay with one that gets them the best value.

Kevin

[TackleTheWorld]

Thank you, Kevin

[Dave Ridley]

It would appear that we now have a government currency, other than pennies, which is circulating, is not being collected, and has intrinsic value.

So it would seem that nickels are very safe to posess in the sense that they probably will never become worth less than 5 present-day cents.

Survivalist gurus recommend holding some spare change on hand in case of a run on banks or other deflationary events.  Such an event could make loose change worth a lot more than it currently is.  Nickels would seem to be the spare change of choice now if you're doing that since they now are both inflation resistant and deflation resistant.

[Lloyd Danforth]

I've been thinking that we need copper rounds, just like we have silver and gold rounds.

Make them an ounce (or an appropriate metric weight).

I wonder how hard it would be to set up a copper minting station? 

BTW, I have a bunch of 95% copper pennies (maybe a half pound) - in case anyone wants to try. 

How about the same with Nickel?

Anyone know how to seperate the zinc or whatever the other 5% is?   Copper might be denser,  although I don't know if settling works with molten metal

[eques]

I've been thinking that we need copper rounds, just like we have silver and gold rounds.

Make them an ounce (or an appropriate metric weight).

I wonder how hard it would be to set up a copper minting station? 

BTW, I have a bunch of 95% copper pennies (maybe a half pound) - in case anyone wants to try. 

How about the same with Nickel?

Anyone know how to seperate the zinc or whatever the other 5% is?   Copper might be denser,  although I don't know if settling works with molten metal

With post-1982 pennies, you can score the copper and dump the penny in hydrochloric acid.  You're left with a copper shell (very shiny with pretty much all gums, oils, and oxides removed).  But this probably won't help with 95% copper pennies, and you do end up having to find a way to get the zinc (as zinc chloride, I'd guess) out of the solution.  Also, you end up losing copper, too (due to the oxides being removed), but I'd think that you'd probably end up losing copper in the melting process as well.

[mvpel]

I've melted zinc pennies in a soup can in the fireplace - charcoal and bellows is unnecessary.  You're left with a slug of liquid zinc and a bunch of copper penny skins.  Like potato skins, only inedible.

Also, there's no real point in melting pennies and nickels for scrap just yet:

The estimates take into account rising metals prices as well as processing, labor and transportation costs. Based on current metals prices, the value of the metal in a nickel alone is a little more than 5 cents. The metal in a penny, however, is still worth less than a penny.

[Dave Ridley]

my understanding is it was also illegal to melt silver between roughly 1964 and 68 but then it became legal again.  So that might be what happens with nickels.   I dont know how practical metling them for profit would be even then but I assume that it must be practical or they wouldn't have banned it.

[Dave Ridley]

apparently there is an entire web forum, almost as active as ours, dedicated to this one subject

http://realcent.forumco.com/default.asp